The Axelrod conditions (The Origins of Co-operation) are that there
is a game where co-operation is the issue but one cannot know
beforehand or via communication of any kind if the other will
co-operate. The other fundamental conditions of the game are that
there are uneven awards for non-co-operation. That is, you can win
more by non-co-operation if the other attempts to co-operate but less
if both players choose non-co-operation.
The game does not present co-operation as the "obvious" choice. The
most common choices are figuring out ways to take the high prize by
exercising non-co-operation.
In a game of only one play, non-co-operation makes sense. In a game
of interations, co-operation makes sense. Axelrod uses the happy
phrase "the shadow of the future" to refer to this state. That is,
when you know that other players have memory and can apply that to
the future, then reputation enters and taking advantage turns into a
losing strategy. (For all and for each.)
The winning strategy then becomes pursue co-operation and retaliate
when others don't *and return to co-operation*.
Some of the strategies that were discovered using theories of complex
adaptive systems and SFI based computer models, was that it could pay
to start by taking advantage and then apologising and co-operating.
It could also pay to take more aggressive strategies if the
strategies of others were extremely aggressive or extremely passive.
It's a game of competing strategies in communities of strategies.
What has not been bettered is the original strategy, called "tit for
tat", if the challenge is to survive in a variety of environments and
a variety of changing communities of strategies. That is, it is most
robust to co-operate as long as there is a sufficient (quite small)
shadow of the future provided by a (quite short) memory capacity.
The major finding when the SFI methods were used, as last heard by me
at any rate, is that the value of apology and generous interpretation
can add significantly in many settings.
Michael McMaster : Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk
book cafe site : http://www.vision-nest.com/BTBookCafe
Intelligence is the underlying organisational principle
of the universe. Heraclitus
--Michael McMaster <Michael@kbddean.demon.co.uk>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>